"This government of ours must, not tomorrow but
today, buy a ticket for the ambassador of Israel, take him to the airport and
send him back home," said Vavi in Pretoria.

"They should send a ticket to our ambassador in Tel
Aviv and bring him back with his entire family, never to go back to that racist
country.

"We want government to cut all diplomatic ties with
that Israel government."

Vavi joined a protest organised by the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, criticising the Israeli occupation of
Gaza and attacks on Palestine.

The protesters gathered at the entrance of the OR Tambo
Building in Pretoria, the headquarters of the department of international
relations, calling for the immediate expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.

International media reports on Friday afternoon said two
more Palestinians were killed, raising the death toll in four days to 100.

‘Racist Israel’

Vavi said South Africa should also cut economic ties with
"racist Israel".

"Please cut all those economic ties. We will not
rest, we will come back over and over until we have convinced every South
African that it is cool to support our brothers and sisters who are being
oppressed," he said.

"Join the BDS, stand up and be counted in the
struggle against apartheid being practised against the people of Palestine.

"What we went through, over 300 years of colonial
oppression in South Africa, is like a Sunday school picnic compared to what the
Palestinians are going through every day."

He lambasted the United States for supporting Israel.

"Shame on you, Barack Obama. Shame on you and your
name that represents the opposite of what you are doing to the people of
Palestine," said Vavi.

"Our own international icon Nelson Mandela told us
that we remain unfree until the people of Palestine have been freed. We are
anti-racist to the core."

Barbaric attacks

On Thursday, the ANC described the Israeli military's
attacks on the Gaza strip as "barbaric".

"The state of Israel has turned the occupied
territories of Palestine into permanent death camps," deputy secretary
general Jessie Duarte said in a statement.

"Of course the killing of any child, irrespective of
race, colour or creed, must be condemned and the death of [three] Israeli young
people is surely as senseless as any other death."

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